Carved.com LLC plans to dial in new business customers this year with a targeted social strategy, says John Webber, founder.

The manufacturer of wood phone cases began selling online in 2011, and this year projects $300,000 in business-to-business e-commerce revenue, up 50% from $200,000 in 2015, Webber says. The Carved.com e-commerce site attracts 100,000 monthly unique visitors, Webber says. While many are consumers, the site also sells to some large businesses, such as Levi Strauss & Co., Urban Outfitters Inc. and Whole Foods Market, as well as many independent shopkeepers.

The online-only manufacturer grew over the years through maintaining a high ranking in natural search results and via paid ads on the Google and Bing search engines. It also collects orders via the sites of some retailers that feature its products.

The company helped improve its position in search engine results in part by sending free cases to online bloggers for review. “In the first six months, I think we sent out more product than we sold,” Webber says. “This helped build organic traffic for our products, and also helped us gain feedback. When we sell a product to a customer, maybe one in 20 will leave a review. When you send it to a blogger, they’ll write 10 paragraphs on every minutia of the product. This feedback was really helpful for us to refine our brand.”

The company originally targeted consumers searching Google for terms like “wood iPhone 6 case” or “wood iPhone galaxy case.” This year, the company plans to revamp its social strategy by sending business customers like craft breweries, spas and interior design firms messages through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram advertising Carved.com’s custom carving services. “We’re going to call, email, send them an Instagram message or tweet saying, ‘Hey, we’re Carved, we make custom wood cases and we’ve made them for businesses in a similar industry as you,’” Webber says. “It’s cold sales, but it works really well.”

Such tactics grew online sales to business customers to about 10% of Carved’s revenue in 2015.

Business customers must complete a custom order request form to shop online at Carved.com. Once the form is complete, a Carved customer service rep will review the request, and email the business customer a price quote based on the order size and amount of customization required, Webber says. Carved then sends the buyer a coupon code they can use at checkout to receive discounted pricing.

Carved also built an application programming interface, or API, that allows its Magento Inc. e-commerce site to integrate with sites built on technology from Shopify Inc. When a customer places an order for a branded iPhone case from Counter Lodging Gaming, for example, or another business customer, the order is automatically processed at Carved.com. “We built a Shopify integration for our wholesale customers who feature our custom cases for resale on their site,” Webber says. “This also helps drive our online sales.”

Webber presented at the 2016 Magento Imagine conference in Las Vegas, N.V.

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